One of the most divisive issues in pediatrics today concerns the proper response by pediatricians to parents who refuse routine childhood immunizations for their children. Many pediatricians refuse to care for such families. Others continue to provide care and continue to try to convince parents that the benefits of immunizations far outweigh the risks. Two of the most powerful arguments in favor of dismissing such parents are as follows: (1) their refusal suggests such lack of trust in the physicians’ recommendations that it undermines the basis for a meaningful physician–patient–parent relationship; and (2) unimmunized children present an unacceptable risk to other children in the physicians’ waiting rooms. This article examines those arguments.
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October 2016
Ethics Rounds|
October 01 2016
Should Pediatric Practices Have Policies to Not Care for Children With Vaccine-Hesitant Parents?
Kenneth Alexander, MD;
Kenneth Alexander, MD
aDivision of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Nemours Children’s Hospital, Orlando, Florida;
bDepartment of Pediatrics, University of Central Florida College of Medicine, Orlando, Florida;
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Tomas A. Lacy, MD;
Tomas A. Lacy, MD
cNemours Children’s Primary Care, Orlando, Florida;
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Angela L. Myers, MD;
Angela L. Myers, MD
dDivision of Infectious Diseases, and
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John D. Lantos, MD
eBioethics Center, Children’s Mercy Hospital and Clinics, Kansas City, Missouri
Address correspondence to John D. Lantos, MD, Children’s Mercy Hospital, 2401 Gillham Rd, Kansas City, MO 64108. E-mail: jlantos@cmh.edu
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Address correspondence to John D. Lantos, MD, Children’s Mercy Hospital, 2401 Gillham Rd, Kansas City, MO 64108. E-mail: jlantos@cmh.edu
POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: Dr Alexander is a paid speaker and consultant for Merck Vaccines; the other authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: The authors have indicated they have no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose.
Pediatrics (2016) 138 (4): e20161597.
Article history
Accepted:
May 12 2016
Citation
Kenneth Alexander, Tomas A. Lacy, Angela L. Myers, John D. Lantos; Should Pediatric Practices Have Policies to Not Care for Children With Vaccine-Hesitant Parents?. Pediatrics October 2016; 138 (4): e20161597. 10.1542/peds.2016-1597
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